הקדמה

140. “Day to day, etc.”“Day to day utters speech, [and night to night reveals knowledge,” Psalms 19:3]. This is referring to a holy day, from amongst those lofty days of the King, that is, from the sefirot of Ze'er Anpin, which are called “days.” They praise the colleagues who engaged in Torah on the night of Shavuot, and they each tell his colleague that matter which he said. This is the meaning of the verse: “Day to day utters” that “speech” and praises him. “And night to night” – this means that every level that governs in the night, the sefirot of Malkhut, which governs in the night, praises one another, with that Da'at that each receives from his colleague. And in the great perfection, they become friends and beloved ones.

Explanation: After having explained that the phrase “and the firmament shows His handiwork” [Psalms 19:2] is referring to the book of remembrance mentioned in Malachi [3:16], he proceeds to interpret the ensuing verses as the prophet’s detailing of what is written in the book of remembrance. It states there (Malachi 3:14–17): “You have said, it is in vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked mournfully because of the Lord of hosts etc. Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another; and the Lord listened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for those who feared the Lord and thought upon His name. And they shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I make a treasure, and I will have compassion over them, as a man has compassion for his own son who serves him.”

You thus find that that matter which they each tell his colleague, “it is in vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept His charge...” is written in the book of remembrance for those who feared the Lord and thought upon His name. God will have compassion over them “as a man has compassion for his own son who serves him,” but only on the day when “I make a treasure,” which is the day of the completion of the rectification.

The meaning of all this is as follows: Before the completion of the rectification, that is, before we have prepared our vessels of receiving to receive only in order to give satisfaction to our Maker, rather than for our own benefit, the Malkhut is called “the tree of [the knowledge of] good and evil.” This is because the Malkhut is the governing of the world in accordance with people’s actions. And since we are unfit to receive all the delight and goodness that God had in mind for us in [His initial] intent for the Creation, for the reason stated in the previous section, we are forced to receive the governing of good and evil from the Malkhut. This governance [incrementally] prepares us to ultimately rectify our vessels of receiving [so that we can receive] in order to give, and [thus] to merit the delight and goodness He had in mind for us. We have already explained this at length above (in section #138#; see there).

As explained there, our experience of good and evil is intertwined with the concepts of reward and punishment as well, since the experience of [something] bad causes one’s separation from his faith in God. Thus, if a person makes the effort, during the period of his bad feeling, not to impair his faith on that account, and he is able to observe the Torah and the commandments in a complete manner, he receives a reward. But if he fails to withstand the test, Heaven forbid, and [allows] separation to enter [him], he is filled with negative thoughts, as stated there.

It is known that the Sages said about such thoughts that the Holy One, blessed be He, punishes one for them as for an action (see Kiddushin 40a). In this regard it is stated: “In order to take hold of the house of Israel by their heart” [Ezekiel 14:5]. It is also known that “the righteousness of the righteous will not save him on the day of his transgression” [Ezekiel 33:12], although this applies only to those who regret their earlier goods deeds [see Kiddushin 40a]. However, sometimes such negative thoughts overcome a person until he regrets, Heaven forbid, the many good deeds he has done and says: “What profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked mournfully because of the Lord of hosts?” He then becomes a completely wicked person, for he regrets his earlier deeds and he forfeits all of the good deeds he had done, due to this evil thought. This is in accordance with the verse: “The righteousness of the righteous will not save him on the day of his transgression.” And yet, despite all this, repentance is effective, although he is then considered as one who is starting to serve the Creator afresh, like a newly born infant, since all of his righteousness from previous days has completely vanished.

Now, the governance [of the world by] good and evil often causes us to experience ups and downs, as stated, each person in accordance with his [individual] situation. You should know that for this reason, each ascent is regarded as a separate day, since on account of the great descent that he has experienced in the meantime, when he regretted his earlier deeds, he is considered like a newly born child upon the ascent. Accordingly, at each ascent it is as though he is beginning to serve the Creator anew, and therefore every ascent is considered a specific day, and likewise, each descent is considered a specific night.

This is the meaning of the statement: “Day to day utters speech, a holy day, from amongst those lofty days of the King.” In other words, for each ascent a person experienced, when he cleaved to the lofty days of the Holy One, blessed be He, they praise the colleagues and [they each] tell his colleague that matter which he said.” For by virtue of the great coupling [between Ze’er Anpin and Malkhut] at the completion of the rectification, they will merit repentance out of love, since the rectification of all the vessels of receiving will be completed, and [these vessels] will exist only in order to give satisfaction to God. Through that coupling, all of the great goodness and delight of [His initial] intent for the Creation will be revealed to us, and then we will clearly see that all those punishments that occurred at the time of the descents, which led us into regretting the earlier deeds, were the very things that purified us and were the direct causes of all the happiness and goodness that we have received at the time of the completion of the rectification. Were it not for those terrible punishments, we would never have arrived at this delight and goodness. At that stage, these intentional sins will then have been transformed into actual merits.

[The Zohar] thus states: “Day to day utters speech,” which means that each ascent before the completion of the rectification is one of those lofty days of the King, which praise the colleagues. [The day] is thus revealed now once again in all the splendor of its wholeness that belongs to that day, and it praises the colleagues who keep the Torah with that matter which they each tell his colleague. 1As explained above, the "days" are the ascents. The ascents, the spiritual advances of the person, are revealed at that time in their entirety, and the negative attitude of "It is in vain to serve God" becomes a merit for the person. This [matter] is: “It is in vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept His charge,” which at the time caused them to suffer great punishments. These have now been turned into merits, since the entire wholeness and happiness of that day would have been unable to be revealed in its magnificence and splendor, were it not for those punishments. Consequently, those who utter those words are regarded as “those who feared the Lord and thought upon His name,” [and those words are] the same as the truly good deeds [that were committed]. It is therefore stated about them too that “I will have compassion over them, as a man has compassion for his own son who serves him.”

[The Zohar] continues: “Day to day utters that speech and praises him.” All those nights are the descents, the sufferings, and the punishments that stopped one’s cleaving to God, until they became many days, one after the other. But now, once the night and darkness between [the days] have also become merits and good deeds, and “the night shines like the day, and the darkness is like the light” [see Psalms 139:12], there are no more breaks in between [the days], and all six thousand years unite into a single great day. Thus, all the fusions that emerged one after the other, revealing ascents and descents that were each separate from the other, have now gathered together into a height of a single, sublime, transcendent [fusion through collision], which shines from one end of the world to the other. This is the mystical meaning of “day to day utters speech,” for the word mentioned previously which separated between one day and the next, has now become a great praise and it praises him, since it has become a merit. In this manner, all [these nights and days] become one day for the Lord.

[The Zohar] continues: “And night to night – every level that governs in the night praises one another, [with] that knowledge that each receives from his colleague.” All those words and sufferings that are called “nights,” on account of which the levels became discrete, one after the other, they too now shine like the day, because they have all gathered together and become a single receptacle for the great knowledge that fills the whole earth with the knowledge of the Lord [see Isaiah 11:9]. Thus, each night by itself would have remained in the darkness, had it not now joined into a single gathering, together with all the other nights. Each night receives its share in [contributing to] the knowledge only through the bonding with the rest of the nights. Therefore, each night is regarded as revealing knowledge to its colleague, for it would not be fit for the knowledge without combining with its colleague.

[The Zohar] thus states: “Every level that governs in the night,” that is, each night that has now been completed as a receptacle for the knowledge of God, “praises one another.” Accordingly, each one praises his colleague because of that knowledge that each one of them received from his colleague, by means of that bond with his colleague, the night. [A particular night] would not have received it other than by bonding with its colleague, since only all of them together, in a gathering, became worthy of receiving that great knowledge. The section thus concludes: “And in the great perfection, they become friends and beloved ones,” for in the great wholeness that they achieve together, all the nights become beloved friends with one another.